EOT 2012 Dong Ban Shan single tree. It takes a little while to get going but very nice once it does. A little straight forward but that is to be expected froma ssingle tree cake. Nice clean and uplifting qi.

tst wrote:Was that one of EoT's 2012 offerings, or a different tea? I don't remember seeing that name.

It was never offered but rather sent as a replacement/compensation that occured as a result of the EoT GFZ cakes being made larger than planned as a result of a miscommunication or something (and then there being fewer cakes?). I don't recall all of the details, but long-story-short is that no, these were never offered on the EoT site.

Some mystery aged maocha puer from a yixing jar at the back of the top shelf of my tea hutch. Haven't touched it for a couple years so my memory currently has no record of it's existence. I have no idea what that puer used to be, but right now it's !@#!@$ fantastic.

2006 menku arbor king - haven't tried this cake since I bought it in 2006. Still quite green, but not unpleasant. The liquor is starting to show some deeper ruby color, hope the taste catches up with the look soon. I've heard some talk that the mao cha for this cake, while arbor, was machine dried instead of sun dried so not as good for long term storage. No idea if that is true, but I'm not seeing any loss of qi so far. I'm uncertain if anyone actually knows what they are talking about. I have two cakes of this, so I'm screwed if it doesn't turn out good because I bought 2, and screwed if it turns out great because I bought only 2.

BioHorn wrote:I agree. After sampling it, I bought two cakes of the Ancient Spirit. I is quite drinkable and one of the few offerings from Scott to have more of that traditional aged pu taste. The cakes arrived in very good condition. It was clear they had seen careful handling.

I think RB is correct in it being at a very nice price point.

One tea from Scott i have great hopes for is the 2009 Yunnan Sourcing "Wu Liang Lan Xiang". I have sampled it some time ago, and it aged very well and quick for such a short time. Given that - this might be an ideal tea for the lesser humid climates.The price is very reasonable. While the 2009 tea is out of stock, the same tea from the same location of later years is still available:

I am sitting here drinking the 2010 YS Wuliangshan tea. I can't help thinking about what Shah said about Lincang, Lancang, and bordering area teas some time ago. He is always down on teas from this area and points to Wuliangshan and Bingdao teas for not delivering the powerful flavors of other areas and his skepticism about whether they age well or not. I would have to agree with him relative to the taste of the teas but one area that these teas seem to have in abundance is how they make you feel. Some people call it Qi. These high mountain teas seem to deliver in this area, especially the old trees. Very clean in the mouth.

The above Wuliang cha is light on flavor and aroma, but big on huigan and feeling, IMO.

For all real intents and purposes, when you're buying boutique puerh, and you're seriously thinking about long term aging--more than a decade or so, then the best chance of success essentially lies with Bada, Bulang, Nannuo/Hekai/Pasha, Youle, and Guafengzhai. High elevation puerh from lower lattitude, made with broadleaf. Do not cheap out. Check online what the broad prices are for each area, and sample the teas likely to be real.

Moreover, for the most part, you shouldn't expect modern blended tea to perform as well as the good teas from the '80s or '90s. There is basically no relationship, for example, between the 2001 Simplified Yun 7542/'03 Jin Dayi/etc and anything after 2005. All of the potency you're going to get from aging most modern Dayi will be from sheer age of the leaves--they'll age into something like the '90s little yellow mark. This doesn't mean that it's not worth it to age such teas, but boy oh boy, the leaf in them older teas were quite abit better.

The issue is pretty similar with single area teas. It is simply not a casual affair to get the good stuff from the places that people are sure will age well. The margins for the traders are terrible, too. This has led to hyping of teas from other areas, particularly lincang. The real problem with this philosophy for the consumer is that the good lincang and lancang groves, outside of Jingmai, simply do not produce much puerh, relative to 'Banna. So people are mostly buying fake Bingdao and fake Xigui, with leaves from other groves that don't cost nearly as much. The northern tea with the best track record for aging appears to be Fengqing DaXueShan (if you don't consider various Xiaguan, because you don't know where any one product is from). Honestly, there is a better publicized track record for those weird wild leaf cakes than there is for Bingdao.

Now, will they age or not? All tea does age, the trick is whether they keep/replace flavor and aroma, developed aged body and qi. Will the Wuliang age? Probably so. Will it age better than other things? Probably not. However, by and large, such Wuliangs are cheap (if they're not one of those JingGu groves or Qianjiazhai), and they are easier to get with decent quality for Wuliangs.

I think it's hard to compare age-ability across regions. Some regions are known to have better processing skills down to the family level (e.g. Yiwu vs. Lincang). So it's very hard, if possible at all, to tell whether the age-ability is caused by regional characters of tea leaves or other factors.

Besides, not all people desire the same type of ageness. And it may or may not be a bad thing if a tea reaches its peak age earlier than another one.

gingkoseto wrote:I think it's hard to compare age-ability across regions. Some regions are known to have better processing skills down to the family level (e.g. Yiwu vs. Lincang). So it's very hard, if possible at all, to tell whether the age-ability is caused by regional characters of tea leaves or other factors.

Besides, not all people desire the same type of ageness. And it may or may not be a bad thing if a tea reaches its peak age earlier than another one.

I agree with this.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the real trend of drinking pure mountain tea from one area only really started after 2000 when big factories started introducing their gushu. So there isn't really validity to which mountain actually age better. Even at 10 years, especially if kept in Yunnan.

Around 2000 was when fujing introduced organic BZ, XG being commissioned to make 99 green big tree (aka known as now as yiwu zhenshan), CT created 99 yi chang hao, LC started using gushu to make 0085 shu.

Everything was cheap then, pure BZ was only 30RMB per kg.

I believe every tea have their own aging flavors. How good it is really depends on who's drinking it. Facts and figures doesn't represent ones personal taste. No right and wrong.

I sampled the 2004 Xiaguan Fang cha tonight. It's pretty decent, though the storage was a little more dry than I would like. Plenty of ku, a moderate amount of shengjin, and some aftertaste, but it was inconsistent from cup to cup. It has plenty of longevity, and the flavour, while there, isn't too interesting at it's current age. I think the tea might be worth of aging given it's strength as well as other attributes. Take care Tea Friends